One Certainty
by Addictedtobooks
Summary: A One-shot; based on a prompt I got from a follower on tumblr. Artemis sneaks away from Wally to go on a mission with Nightwing, one she knows is dangerous. Wally searches for her and tries his best to get her out of the line of fire before it's too late. Rated T fpr language and some other shtuff. Enjoy!


The adrenaline, the rush, the high of a job; he knew what she was missed. Hell, he misses the feeling too. But Wally would have never pulled a stunt like this just to get it back. "No, Artemis. You promised me we'd talk about this!" he shouts into the phone, already he rushes to his car to go out and find her.

"I know we said that, Wally," Artemis says back to him calmly, loud noises in the background like gunshots, "But we both know you would have never let me go alone."

Wally grinds his teeth together, "Of course I wouldn't have! It's a _suicide mission, _Artemis! If you had wanted to go on a protocol mission, one far less dangerous, just to have some closure, I would have been all for it. But no, you had to choose this mission. The one where Dick clearly told you that the chances of survival are very low… and you chose to go without me?" He asks, his tone grows darker, "I'm coming after you."

He hangs up as he gets to the door of his car and quickly gets in. He would have run to get her, but he could not remember the last time he'd used his power. No, the car would be faster for this particular job. He starts the engine and turns the GPS system on has fast as he can. He quickly finds Artemis' old tracker, the one they put on her arrows and he quickly plugs in the address. "You are so dead," he murmurs to himself as he races off down the street to find his girlfriend.

He pulls up to an abandoned warehouse and frowns; no lights, no people, and certainly no gun-shots. Slowly, cautiously, he slithers out of his car, looking around. He pulls the GPS off of his windshield, deciding to follow the tracker until he finds the arrows. He gets to the door of the building to find Artemis' arrows lying in a row under the door, a note attached to one of them.

_You're good, _it read, _but not that good, Wally. I'm sorry. Really, I know you didn't want me to do this, but I had to and I'm sorry. I love you, Wally. Forever and Always – Artemis. _

Wally folded the letter slowly and tucks it in his pocket, his rage only building inside his chest. He was going to kill her. He ran back to the car and started it again, trying to locate the GPS signal in Artemis' phone. "If only Dick were here to mess around on this thing," he mumbled as he suddenly began to miss his best friend.

Finally he managed to get a signal on Artemis' phone and he drove as fast as he could to the address. What he found when he got to a new warehouse seemed utterly fine, the team even looked like they were winning.

But that wasn't going to stop him from pulling Artemis out of the gun fire. "Artemis!" He yelled to her as he ran up the stairs to the where she was positioned on the roof, Nightwing perched next to her.

Wally sees her expression, one of mischief, and that was when he, along with everyone else heard it; one, sickening, gunshot. They all had looked up to see where the shot came from, but after a moment only two pairs of eyes were searching for the source.

Dick looked back first, knowing it would be hard to find where the shot originated from; but as soon as he turned back he was wishing he hadn't. The sight that he was met with was a terrible one, one he never wanted to see in a million years. He looked up, taking his mask off, and met Wally's eyes just as he was turning back around and suddenly, Wally knew something was horribly, horribly wrong.

Wally had never seen a look like that in Dick's eyes. Not ever. He knew exactly what the look meant though. He scanned the roof from where he was, in hopes of seeing a blonde head bobbing around. When he didn't he knew, for sure, just what Dick's look meant. "No," he whispered softly.

That was when he started to run, really _run_, and he was at the top of the roof in seconds. What he saw as soon as he got there felt as though it would kill him. It _was_ killing him. He knew, by one look, that Artemis was gone. "No," he said again, kneeling done by her lifeless body that began to pool with blood from the gun wound.

He felt tears in his eyes. He could never remember crying before, but he didn't care, he just let the tears flow down his cheeks freely. In that moment, sitting there with Dick by his side and Artemis at his knees, he didn't know what to do. He just sits there, crying over her body while Dick continues to search for the source of the gunshot.

"I'll kill them," Wally says suddenly a few minutes later, shocking Dick.

"What?"

Wally laughs harshly, looking up, "You heard me." He spat, reaching down to Artemis' boot and pulling out the small dagger he knew she always kept there. "I am going to find that son of a bitch and drill this through his chest." He spoke darkly, carefully getting up and turning towards the stairs, getting ready to run.

His friend, for the first time ever, was just a little bit faster than he and managed to step in front of him. "No, Wally." Dick said firmly, not letting his friend past, "You can't."

"Why not!?" Wally yelled, glaring at his friend.

Dick met his gaze calmly, "You know why."

Wally scoffs, laughing harshly again, "Why? Are you afraid I'll keep doing it? Keep on killing until, finally, someone kills me?"

His friend merely shrugs, "it's how a lot of villains start out," Dick offers, still blocking his friend's path.

"Just let me kill the one, Dick." Wally says, breathing heavily, "Just one." He says, breathing faster and faster, and soon he sounds like he's sobbing again, "They killed her, Dick, that bastard killed Artemis."

"I know, and I'm sorry, Wally."

After that Wally wasn't exactly sure what happened. He remembers Dick putting him in the passenger seat of his and Artemis' car, and he remembers watching him put Artemis' bloodied body in the Bio-ship after calling M'gann, but he doesn't remember leaving, or the drive anywhere. He is still unsure of how he got to Dick's house, or how he managed to walk to and lay down on the sofa in Dick's apartment.

The rest of what was going on is what really confused him though. Why everything seemed to be in slow motion, why he felt as though he could hardly move. None of it made any sense, and he didn't know what was real anymore; except for one thing.

There was only one thing he was absolutely certain of. Wally's spitfire was gone.


End file.
